Overview
- The Pleno del Senado approved a substitute regulation to govern selection of Tribunal Constitucional magistrates, finalizing the procedural framework that moves the process into implementation.
- Lawmakers passed the measure by 40 votes in favor, 13 against and four abstentions, making the new rules the formal guide for the upcoming contest.
- The evaluation uses a 100-point scale with 70 points for curricular merits and 30 for a public, in-person interview and sets minimum thresholds of 50 curricular points and 10 interview points to qualify candidates.
- A special technical commission will preselect and score applicants, while the Pleno will make the final appointments by a two-thirds vote, a design that separates merit assessment from the political decision.
- The regulation adds transparency tools—public individual scoring, citizen tachas and proposals from professional associations—but opposition senators urged greater curricular weight and stronger integrity checks and warned the final power concentrated in the Senate could politicize the court.